Smith’s ESGradingsTM
Is used as a system for evaluating infrastructure projects based on their overall contribution to the economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability. It establishes a unique holistic framework for sustainable project design, not only creating meaningful sustainable performance objectives but expanding opportunities for performance improvement.
Environmental
Smith’s Research & Gradings knows that no individual weather event can be attributed to climate change. However, Smith’s Research & Gradings has tracked climate change since 1999, when Smith’s Sentinel System first reported the disappearance of lakes in Siberia during the summer months. In 2000, Smith’s Sentinel System, a spaced-based surveillance program launched in 1996, reported that fresh water lakes were also disappearing in Alaska. Smith’s predicted that as average temperatures rise, the air will hold on to more moisture and produce more violent weather storms. A rule of thumb is that for every degree Celsius of temperature increase, a single parcel of air can hold up to 7 percent more water. That moisture is then released as an increasing amount of precipitation. But, climate change doesn’t always work as expected.
Social
Smith’s ESGradingsTM evaluates a project’s impact on the entire community, starting with the health and well-being of individuals to the entire social network. Projects can have a positive impact on communities through job creation, community education, worker training, and knowledge creation. Smith’s ESGradingsTM evaluate the physical, economic, and social impacts:
Does the project harm the health of employees or nearby residents?
Are local residents employed?
Is there access to public transportation?
Does the project support the community’s goals and growth?
Are natural resources and beauty preserved or enhanced?
Governance
Governance requires a new approach to thinking about how projects can be developed and delivered. Project management teams are more successful if they communicate and collaborate early in the process, involve a variety of people in creating ideas about the project, and understand the long-term view of the project over its entire life cycle. The Governance evaluations reward these actions, which together with traditional reliable energy standards and new sustainable initiatives, produce projects that positively contribute to the world around it.
